Of Cheaters and Ghosts
by Livelier
Summary: EDITED  Lily is heartbroken, and James, being the gentleman he is, decides to get some revenge. Oneshot! L/J canon. Rated k  for a teeny bit of language. R&R?


_Disclaimer: I own only my creativity. Sorry._

Of Cheaters and Ghosts

James Potter knew something was wrong when Lily Evans came storming into the Great Hall late for breakfast one morning. First off, Lily Evans was _never _late for breakfast. In fact, she often chided James and his mates when they were. "It's the most important meal of the day, you know," she would say while piling her plate full of food. The Marauders knew not to question her. Second, she certainly didn't "storm" into the Great Hall; she was Head Girl, so she thought she needed to always posses a sense of cool collectedness. She was also a morning person, so much of the time she waltzed into breakfast while whistling her favorite tune. James only knew all of this because he had practically stalked her for the past few years up until it wasn't necessary anymore. This year, both James and Lily were Heads, so they had come to be unexpectedly good friends over the course of the first few months.

So James knew better than to ask when Lily sat down across from him and began filling her plate with more vigor than usual. He received no pleasant "Good morning" or "How did you sleep?" but James was not surprised. When Lily flew into a flurry, there was no stopping her. Instead of engaging her in conversation, James turned to his best mate, Sirius, and quietly began plotting their next prank. Usually, Lily would turn a blind eye to this and pretend she didn't hear anything, but not this morning.

"Don't you dare, Potter," Lily threatened with a malevolent glare, returning to the use of his surname as she often did when she was peeved. "You're Head Boy now. You need to set an example to the younger students, teach them to behave themselves, not promote the opposite!"

Sirius, who wasn't the sharpest tool in the broom closet, glowered right back at her and said, "Says the girl who nearly got into a duel with her boyfriend in the common room. What did McLaggen do to upset you, Evans, pray tell? Did he finally grow the balls to get rid of you?" This statement only fueled the fire.

Lily's bottle-green eyes sparked indignantly and shrank until they were nothing but slits. "For your information, Black, Charles and I are no longer together," she replied icily, scooping up her books and standing. James couldn't help the swell of hope that filled him. "Ten points from Gryffindor for back-talking the Head Girl, Black. And five points from you, Potter."

"For what?" cried James, outraged. The previous sensation of optimism had gone as quickly as it had come.

"For plotting illicit activities. Now, go to class," she ordered as she herself turned on her heel and marched out of the Great Hall.

Sirius stabbed at his sausage. "A bloody nightmare, she is. Wears that damn badge like a crown," he grumbled to himself. He jabbed his fork a little too enthusiastically this time, and his elbow knocked over the goblet of pumpkin juice in front of him. "Oh Christ."

But Remus had already fixed it. With a wave of his wand, the pumpkin juice disappeared from the table and reappeared in Sirius's glass. "No harm, no foul."

"Brilliant, Moony," James complimented with his signature cocky grin. "Ten points to Gryffindor for helping out a friend. Now we've only got five more to gain back!"

Their first class of the day was Charms with Professor Flitwick. James took his usual seat next to Lily, only because there were no other open desks in the room. Everyone seemed to sense her mood and sat as far away from her as possible. James and Lily's best friend, Alice Prewett, were the only ones insane enough to dare to be anywhere close to her.

As soon as he sat down, a note landed in his lap. He unfolded it and immediately recognized Alice's handwriting. The note was simple, only consisting of one word in the middle of the page: Beware. James pulled out his quill and scribbled his reply. _What's her issue? _And then he sent it sailing over to her. It was difficult to do so without Lily noticing, because she would intercept the note and most definitely take off more house points.

Alice's answer came back in just seconds. _She caught McLaggen and some Ravenclaw bimbo in a broom cupboard last night. The bastard denied everything, even though she saw him with her own eyes. Not too intelligent, eh?_

James choked back the urge to laugh, although there was really nothing funny about it. Maybe he was just glad the bloke was out of the way. He'd been waiting for this opportunity ever since the term started, but McLaggen got there before he could. Now that he was gone... Obviously James would wait awhile before making his move; it would be completely insensitive to do so otherwise.

The class passed in silence, James plotting his attack the entire time. After lunch, they were done with classes for the day, so James headed up to the Head dorm to grab some things before he went back to the Gryffindor common room. He gave the drunken wizard in the portrait the password he and Lily had agreed upon, and clambered through the hole into the room. The first thing he noticed was Lily's school bag sitting in her usual place at the circular table near the fire. The books were still packed inside of it, and the chair was a little askew, as if she had knocked it out of place when she flung her bag down.

James paused for a moment where he stood, and began to listen. Perhaps it was because he spent a large part of his time as an animal, James heard the faintest of sounds. It was almost like...someone crying.

He tossed his own bag aside and bounded up the stairs to the dorms. James paused only for the briefest of moments to knock on Lily's door before bursting through it, uninvited.

Lily was curled up on her bed with her face buried in a pillow. When she looked up to see James burst into her room, James could see that his hearing had proved him correct; her eyes were puffy and red like she had been crying for hours. Without hesitation, James crawled right into bed with her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, murmuring soothing nothings to her.

Surprisingly, she did not hex him into oblivion or even give him a chiding about barging into her room or being in her bed. Instead, she curled into him and allowed James to rock her gently back and forth. After a while, her sobs subsided a little and she was finally able to speak.

"H-he called me a p-poisonous b-bitch," she blubbered through her tears, clutching James's shirt and sobbing harder. "Said a b-bint like me...did-didn't de-deserve him."

James felt the muscles in his neck go taut, and his jaw started jumping as his back went rigid. "He said that?" he muttered through clenched teeth, his voice strained.

Lily nodded miserably and hugged James closer to her. He'd dreamed of the day when she would be this close to him willingly, but now that it was here, all he wanted was to be far away. He wanted nothing more than to get his hands on McLaggen and give him a taste of his own medicine.

"I'll kill him," James stated matter-of-factly. And he would have if it weren't for the redheaded, green-eyed girl next to him. He couldn't possibly leave her now. Maybe when she was asleep.

Luckily for him, that moment came sooner rather than later. As soon as her breathing settled into a regular rhythm, James extracted himself from her grip and slid off the bed. He made a stop at his dorm (which was right next door to Lily's) for his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders' Map, and then headed out of the miniature common room.

With a quick glance at the Map, James knew exactly where to find McLaggen. Guessing he had about a half hour before Lily realized that he had disappeared, he sped down the corridor under the Cloak. Sure enough, McLaggen was strutting down the hall with his new girlfriend (some bottle-blonde, bra-stuffing bimbo) prancing along next to him. James silently crept up behind the pair.

He wished Sirius were here; his best mate always had such creative ideas. But he wasn't so James was just going to have to do the best with what he had.

A sudden inspiration struck him. At the beginning of the term, Lily had told him of this Muggle horror film she had seen over the summer break, where the main character was given a certain amount of days to live. The paranoia eventually got to him and he hung himself before the seven days were up. As it turns out, the whole thing was just a ridiculous prank.

James slithered even closer to the couple and placed his lips at McLaggen's ear. "Seven days..." he whispered in his best imitation of the slightly gaga Divination professor. "Seven days, Charles McLaggen."

The Ravenclaw girl's eyes went round as saucers, and she began slowly edging away from McLaggen. "Wh-what's going on, Charlie?" the girl asked, hysteria creeping into her voice.

McLaggen's eyes were as wide as hers and he was looking around nervously, but he tried reassuring her all the same. "I'm sure it's nothing, Rachel. It's probably just Peeves playing a trick on us," he said, although he didn't look so sure.

"Yes, except for the part where it's not, Charlie!" the girl named Rachel snapped.

James cackled loudly, enjoying this far more than he should be. He circled both of them, as they had now come to a standstill. "Beware, Charlie... Beware."

At this point, Rachel burst into tears and fled the corridor. McLaggen tried running after her but James blocked the way. His entire body was shaking, and his face looked even paler than usual.

"Leave me alone!" McLaggen commanded weakly.

James just laughed. "Not so tough now, eh, Charlie?"

At last, McLaggen got around James and broke into a run down the hallway. "Seven days..." James repeated as he passed. When he was out of sight, James ripped off the Cloak and nearly ran back to the Head dorms. His thirty minutes were up, and Lily would no doubt be awake now, wondering where he disappeared to.

As expected, Lily was sitting on the couch in the common room with her arms crossed, and her eyebrows raised. When he entered the room, she stood up, and moved toward him. She regarded him for a moment or two, and then wrinkled up her nose. "Why are you all sweaty?"

"I, er, went for a little jog," James replied hesitantly. He wasn't really lying when he said that, but it was definitely not the whole truth.

"Really?" Lily asked. James nodded. "And where was McLaggen during this 'little jog' of yours, hmm?"

It was scary how much she knew, how much she intuited. "Oh, well you know," James answered airily, waving his hand to nothing in particular, "he was around."

"Around?" she repeated, quirking an eyebrow as she sidled closer to James.

It was really quite distracting, her being so close to James. Her scent was wafting toward him, making his brain go out yonder. There was no hope of retrieving it from out there. So he just hummed his assent.

That was when she looped her arms around his neck. He could feel his knees growing weaker by the second. Why was she torturing him like this?

In an effort to distract himself from her closeness, James said with a smirk, "But don't worry; I doubt McLaggen will be troubling you any longer."

"Is that so?"

What was with all these vague answers? "Mhm," hummed James. "In fact, he _might_ hang himself in the next week."

Something seemed to have clicked in Lily's brain. "James Potter," she whispered, "you didn't...? Did you?"

James shrugged. "Eh. More or less. I'm pretty sure I scared off his little girlfriend, though."

Lily laughed gleefully, throwing her head back away from James's. The brief break in proximity gave him a second to think. It finally occurred to him that Lily was not so subtly hitting on him. And it was time to step up his game.

"You are a piece of work, you know that?" said Lily, beaming at him. Her eyes were twinkling more so than he'd ever seen them. Knowing that he was the cause of that gave him a surge of confidence.

James grinned. "But you love me anyway. Just admit it," he urged her as he poked her ribcage playfully. She giggled.

"Yes, I suppose that is true," answered Lily with a shy smile.

"And I just know you'd love me even more if you went to Hogsmeade with me this weekend," James went on, letting his confidence take the lead now.

A blank look crossed Lily's face. "But this weekend isn't a Hogsmeade trip." Then comprehension took the confusion's place. "_Oh. _Well that sounds..." she trailed off.

"Come on, Lils, take a walk on the wild side," coaxed James, staring up at her from under his lashes because he knew she could never resist him then.

Lily grinned. "Sounds like a date!"

"Wait — what? Did you just say...'yes' to me?"

Lily sighed, her shoulders drooping, and nodded. "I know it's hard to believe. But I had some time to think while you were off harassing McLaggen and that poor girl, and I came to a realization."

"And what was that?" James asked. She had his full attention the moment she accepted his illegal Hogsmeade trip offer.

"When I was actually dating McLaggen, he didn't do anything for me. If I were sad, he'd snog me to try to make me feel better. If I were mad, he would tell me to take a trip to the library; that ought to cheer me up!" James chuckled, but Lily quickly silenced him with a look. "But after I found him with that other girl, you were there for me. That's something he never was, and I discovered that even if he were there, I would have wanted someone else. More specifically, I would have wanted _you_ there."

James gaped at her for a while before he finally found his ability to speak again. "So you...like me then?" he asked for clarification.

"Of course. Didn't I just say that?"

James needed no further encouragement; he wrapped his arms around her back so he completely enveloped her and pulled her body close to his. Her lips met his all too eagerly, and he responded with great enthusiasm.

As it turns out, not all bad things come out of cheaters, ghosts, and one enraged Lily Evans.

_A/N: What did you think? Love, hate? Personally, I quite like it. I think it may have gone from one emotion to another a little too fast; no one goes from a bad relationship to loving some other person in the course of twelve hours. But oh well. Let me know in a review! Thanks everyone! _

_Much Love,_

_Livelier_


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